CD Review: Simon Allen Quintet - Any Minute Now

Simon Allen Quintet - Any Minute Now
(SACD001. CD Review by Chris Parker)

Playing in Clark Tracey's quintet, as saxophonist Simon Allen has done since winning the Daily Telegraph 'Young Jazz' competition a while back, is a sure sign of musical competence (Tracey being the UK equivalent of Art Blakey or Betty Carter in this respect); add to this experience with the big bands of Laurence Cottle (the bassist on this recording) and Colin Towns, and you clearly have a top-flight musician on your hands.

He plays all the saxophones with aplomb, though his alto playing perhaps stands out for its ebullience and searing articulateness; on this album he also reveals a considerable but unshowy arranging talent, filtering the likes of Kurt Weill's 'Speak Low', Clifford Brown's 'Joy Spring' or Harold Arlen's 'Come Rain or Come Shine' through his own jazz sensibility so they emerge as fresh, punchy vehicles for a sparky quintet completed by trumpeter Martin Shaw, pianist Tom Cawley and drummer Mike Bradley.

Shaw and Allen are both assured soloists, whether blazing through up-tempo numbers or emoting in the album's quieter moments, and both Cawley and Bradley are suitably lively and inventive, but special mention has to be made of Cottle, who is simply the most deft, tuneful and musicianly electric bassist this side of Steve Swallow, his occasional solos an absolute joy, his grounding of the band sound simply immaculate.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable album from a smart, unfussy but surprisingly powerful band.

Copies of Any Minute Now are available from Simon Allen

CD Review: Steve Melling Clark Tracey Special Septet - Special One

Steve Melling Clark Tracey Special Septet - Special One
(Melljazz MJCD007. CD Review by Chris Parker)

The personnel on this septet album should tell you most of what you need to know about this splendid recording: in addition to the co-leaders, pianist Steve Melling and drummer Clark Tracey, there is the latter's current first-choice alto player, Simon Allen, trumpeter Mark Armstrong, trombonist Mark Bassey, bassist Geoff Gascoyne (who also provides the cover art) and either Dave O'Higgins or Josephine Davies on tenor.

Composing duties are shared between Armstrong, Melling, O'Higgins and Gascoyne (with an Allen arrangement of Ray Noble's 'Cherokee' thrown in for good measure), but it is arguably the manner – tight, assured, powerful, musicianly but pleasingly informal – that impresses as much as the matter here.

Melling's 'Alfred the Great', for instance, recalls all the slow-building power and roiling intensity of one of the UK pianist's most obvious influences, McCoy Tyner; Tracey's 'The Mighty Sas' memorably fleshes out the version (also involving Armstrong and Allen) on the drummer's 2006 quintet album of the same name; O'Higgins's 'In the Zone' unfussily incorporates one of the most celebrated of jazz staples, 'Giant Steps' into its energy and bustle.

Overall, an unalloyed treat from eight of the UK's finest in top form.

The album is available from www.stevemelling.co.uk and at gigs.